


A Shadow in Chiswick

by WellWidget



Series: Unlibraryverse [3]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, F/M, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-12
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2017-11-20 22:53:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/590547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WellWidget/pseuds/WellWidget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Journey's End fix-it, focused on Donna and Wilf during the specials. Some people remember Donna Noble, but she doesn't remember her own adventures. Some people don't approve of that. Donna and the Doctor saved a lot of people, now it's time to repay the favour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Donna Noble didn't like her memory being full of holes, but her family assured her that she would be fine. She tried to believe them, but there was an ache that refused to be ignored. It was more than the feeling that she had forgotten something, it was as if something was missing, like being heartbroken after being left by a boyfriend magnified a hundred times. She would roll over in the middle of the night, open her eyes and look about, as if she should be somewhere else, feeling uncomfortably warm. She had a strange aversion to her normal coffee, and found herself making tea instead, always two on instinct, though she didn't know why. Wilf, her dear old Granddad, claimed it was him, good for his heart, that she was only looking out for him, but she saw through the lie, and the sadness in his eyes every time it happened.  
  
Then there were the migraines. Every time she asked people what she had been doing or tried to discover what she had been doing in the year of her lost memory, the migraines came. They made her skull feel as if it was splitting. She had gone to doctor after doctor, but every time she knew she hadn't found the right one. Her GP, the A&E doctors, even the neurologists had no idea what had put her through such pain. Her mother, oddly worried, told her to ignore them, like a bee. Donna just stopped telling her about it, and thought of Agatha Christie.  
  
As a last-ditch effort, she went to a clinic she had heard about, in London, built where Canary Wharf had been destroyed. It was the odd-man out, a clinic in a financial center, but no one seemed to mind. She got into the blue car she shared with her mother, feeling another migraine start behind her eyes.  
  
The drive was uneventful, much to her relief as she had to mentally command her eyes to focus repeatedly, and then, sooner than she had expected, she was pulling into the car park of the modern building, feeling another wave of nervousness that she always did, going to clinics for this.   
  
The inside was as white as she expected, with only a few people scattered around the room. She fell into a seat, and picked up the latest issue of  _Tatler_.  
  
She was flicking through the pages, surprisingly uninterested, when she felt someone staring at her. "What?" She challenged, blue eyes flashing at the man who looked like a boy playing soldier, with a silly red hat.   
  
"Ma'am." The soldier said, jumping up and offering her a deep salute.  
  
"What you on about?" Donna shot back. "Are you saying I look old?" 

  
The soldier looked at her in puzzlement, but shook his head. "My mistake."  
  
Before she could correct his assumptions, however, a young man appeared in the doorway. "Donna Noble?" He said, gesturing to her. "If you'll follow me?"  
  
The bit before the doctor showed up was the same as always, if slightly higher tech than she would have expected. She found herself slightly embarrassed about her weight, even though she was probably in the best shape of her life and the questions were answered as readily as possible.  
  
The nurse left with the usual words that the doctor would see her shortly, and Donna was left, looking about at the best reproductions of impressionist paintings she had ever seen as she waited to see yet another doctor, not particularly hopeful. No one had been able to figure anything out yet, after all. So, she convinced herself that this was the last one. The last time she would try. After this, she would listen to her Mum and Gramps. Live in the moment, rather than trying to remember.   
  
Just as she resolved that, there was a knock on the door and it opened with ease. "Hello," the female doctor said easily, her brunette hair bouncing in easy waves. "Donna, is it? I'm Dr. Chesterton, but you can call me Dyoni."  
  
"Pleasure to meet you," Donna said, offering her a smile as she shook her head, already starting to like this doctor more than her previous ones.   
  
"I've had a look over your files and your previous tests, and I think I've found a therapy that may help -- it will definitely reduce or eliminate the migraines and may bring back your memories -- but I have to warn you that it's experimental."  
  
Donna was surprised, expecting another bevy of tests and a sad shake of the head -- or worse, offering to call for a psych consult. "But there's a chance it'll stop the pain?"  
  
"Definitely." Dyoni replied with a smile. "Though we are unsure about it's effect on your memory issues, we'd be hopeful. You look like a perfect candidate."  
  
"Sign me up!" Donna said, getting her hopes up despite herself. "What do I have to do?"  
  
"One injection every week for four weeks, and a course of medications -- three pills three times a day, with meals for three months. We'll reevaluate then." Dr. Chesterton told her easily. "If you're certain, we can give you the injection and pills today."  
  
For once, Donna was sure that things were looking up. "Yes." She said, desperately trying not to sound to eager.   
  
Half an hour later, Donna had a sore bum from the injection and was holding three bottles of pills. "So, no alcohol, no smoking, no other medications or vitamins for as long as I'm taking these?" She confirmed with the pleasant doctor.   
  
"That's right." Dyoni replied, holding the exam room door open for her. "And if you go to the front desk, Melissa will make your appointment for next week."  
  
Dyoni Chesterton made sure that the woman had left the building completely, before returning to her office, and activating a hidden switch that revealed a secondary elevator. She stepped in and hit the down button.  
  
Before long, she stepped out and her heels were clicking along a concrete floor. The large main room was dominated by computer screens and CCTV monitors, but the brunette paid them no mind as she headed down a hallway, opening a door and announcing, "Phase one complete."  
  
The sole occupant was a tall ginger-haired teenager, who was sitting in an office chair and facing a wall, and making sniffling sounds that sounded almost like crying.   
  
Dyoni paused, startled. "Mina?" She said slowly. "Are you all right?"  
  
Mina, turned, her large brown-eyes rimmed in red, but she wiped at them violently, clearing her throat. "Fine, I'm fine."   
  
"You don't look it." Dyoni said eying the girl up from the toes of her brown boots to the crown of her head. She seemed to want to ask something, than shook herself. "Phase one is complete."  
  
"Brilliant." Mina said easily, ripping a bright purple sticking plaster off her arm. "I suppose it's my turn then. Thank you, Dyoni."  
  
"Anytime, Boss." Dyoni replied, shaking her head. What would Three think of this if they knew? "Good luck."


	2. Chapter 2

Sometimes, Donna wondered what was wrong with her -- not the memory loss, that, at least, could be explained away with medicine in a way that almost made sense, even if it didn't make the block of Swiss cheese she called a memory better. No, it was the other things. The things that made no sense.   
  
Like her sudden interest in science, or that she seemed to be suddenly  _good_  at it. It was as much of a mystery as her mother's sudden attempts to be kinder -- which just made Donna unsettled, wondering if she had some sort of horrible, painful disease where she was going to die horribly. She dreamed of dissolving into fat the other night, which was very disturbing, and woke up with a headache on top of it all.  
  
Still, on a whim, when she couldn't find anything she liked in the library, she had driven by Birkbeck, and thought, why not? Now, after filling out paperwork and catching late enrollment, she was walking into the university, heading to all things, a class entitled Geology of the Solar System I, and what was more, actively excited for it.  
  
Something was definitely off.  
  
She entered the classroom nervously. She hadn't been to school in ages, and was amazed how well she had actually done on the entrance assessment for the course. It was quite a disconcerting feeling, made slightly better by the fact that almost everyone in the room appeared to be older than the average student, which shouldn't surprise her about Birkbeck.   
  
The one exception to the age group looked to be a teenager, siting by herself in the back, who didn't really look like she could be more than sixteen, let alone meet the over-eighteen entry requirements. Her arms were crossed defensively, and she was pulling a face that reminded Donna strongly of when she had been in school, and had made her way by defensively declaring "Do I look bovvered?" at everyone. The girl was even ginger!  
  
On a whim, she planted herself beside the girl, offering her a smile and feeling an odd sense of deja vu, as if they had met before. "Hi," she said kindly. "I'm Donna, Donna Noble."  
  
Mina looked suspicious, but offered the older woman her hand. "I'm Mina. Mina James."  
  
Donna shook her hand, easily, smiling. "I hope you don't mind me sitting with you."  
  
"Not at all." Mina replied, giving Donna the first honest smile she had seen on the girl's face. "I'm nervous, this is my first class."  
  
"Mine too." Donna sympathized. It was hard for her as a thirty-something, how hard must it be at half that? She tried to come up with something mundane as a distraction for them both as they waited for the professor to show. "I like your bracelets." She offered. From what she could see, they were thick leather, with odd circular designs on them. "The designs look familiar."  
  
Thanks!" Mina enthused, looking down at the bracelets that encapsulated her wrists. "I dunno." She said after a moment. "I carved them in a year or so ago, when I got bored. They just popped into my brain." The girl tilted her head at Donna, brown eyes bright and excited, making Donna wonder, again, at how old she was. "Have you ever had that happen? Things just pop into your brain?"  
  
Donna felt oddly close to her in that moment. "All the time." She admitted. "But I have some sort of amnesia. My memory for the last two years is gone, so..." She shrugged.   
  
"I think we'll be good friends." Mina said after a moment. "I don't know why. I just feel that way."  
  
"Me too." Donna agreed. it was as if she had known the girl before or something. She trusted her. The conversation cut off when the professor arrived, and headed to the front.


	3. Chapter 3

Donna had discovered something about her pills -- well, several things. One, most obviously, her headaches were disappearing, two, it was making sure she ate meals at regular intervals, rather than grabbing something when she had the chance. The only side effect thus far were the strange dreams -- giant red spiders, giant wasps, giant beetles. She had no idea why she kept dreaming about insects.  
  
She woke up from the beetle dream, unsettled, and sure she hated the blond who kept telling her that she had to turn left. She shook herself out of it, and headed down to a nearby cafe so she could take her morning doses of her pills. It had officially been only a week since she was on them, and already her migraines were disappearing, with today being her second injection of whatever experimental drugs that were solving all her problems, even if they were making her have crazy dreams.  
  
She settled down at a table with a tea and scone, popping her vials and arranging them on her napkin. She took a bite of scone and took the pink one, which always made her eyes water, followed by a sip of her tea and the green one that tasted rather like chocolate. This was all the lead-up for the last pill, which was bigger than the other two, and always took a lot of concentration not to gag on. She finished her scone and tea and got the last pill down, shaking herself slightly before getting up and heading in the direction of the tube station, planning to do some shopping before her appointment at the clinic.  
  
This plan, however, was circumvented when she turned a corner and saw someone familliar apparently fighting with her cell phone -- or more accurately, whoever was on the other side of it. It surprised her, but almost instinctively, she slowed to a stop and reached out to put a hand on the girl’s shoulder.  
  
“Well maybe if it’s your  _subconscious_  telling you something about us, you should go figure out what the  _hell_  it means you great sodding...” A trail of expletives followed that Donna thought sounded foreign, but at the same time, she could understand perfectly.

The phone clicked closed and Mina gave a great shudder, and Donna put an arm around her, trying to be as comforting as possible. She didn’t know why, but ever since that first day of classes, she had felt protective of the girl, like if she didn’t stand up for her, someone would throw her out of a moving train. “Hey, Mina, honey, what was all of that about?”  
  
Mina looked up startled, and her face flashed from anger to panic to despair in quick succession. Donna recognised the transition, but she didn’t know from where, refusing to let go as the girl wiped at her eyes, obviously embarrassed by her outburst. “I’m all right.”  
  
“We both know all right is code for really not all right.” Donna said easily, not at all sure where she had gotten that, eying the girl up and down. Some things never changed from day to day, like the thick leather bracelets and the odd raspberry coloured tights and brown leather boots, but today her eyes were definitely red and her skin was blotchy. “Come on, out with it.”  
  
For a moment, it looked as if the girl was going to resist, but then she crumpled slightly. “Boys are stupid.” She said quietly.  
  
Well, if that didn’t make all the sense in the universe, Donna didn’t know what did. Just like that, all her plans were turned on her head. “Aren’t they just. Come on, you look like you need some ice cream, movies and a good cry.”  
  
~*~  
  
When Wilf got home from his meeting, stuffed with a few too many meat pies, he found an odd sight. He blinked and wondered for a moment if the treats he wasn’t supposed to have had gone to his head, because there were  _two_  gingers sitting in front of the telly, only half paying attention to the tosh on the screen and eating out of the ice cream carton with spoons.  
  
“You better get some bowls, you know how much your mum hates that.” He said finally, deciding not to address the fact that there was another person there, just in case he was hallucinating.  
  
Donna heaved a sigh of great annoyance and picked up the carton, going back to the kitchen for bowls, shouting over her shoulder. “Mina, this is my Gramps, he’s one of the good ones. Gramps, this is Mina, she’s in my class.”  
  
The smaller redhead turned and smiled at the older man, holding out her hand to him. “Mina James, nice to meet you.”  
  
“Wilfred Mott, but you can call me Wilf.” The kindly man said with a smile, wondering if he could sit down or not. “You understand all this stuff Donna’s been bringing home about stars?”  
  
“Well...” Mina drew out, as Donna came back into the room with bowls of ice cream, though whether there was any left in the carton was a mystery.  
  
“She must for all that she never takes notes, just doodles her circles.” Donna said easily. “I think she’s some kind of genius. She can’t be more than sixteen.”  
  
“I’m eighteen.” Mina said easily, taking a bite of ice cream. “Look younger, I know.”  
  
“Can’t be.” Donna said, shaking her head. “You were only thirteen when I saw you last.” Somehow, the moment the words were out of her mouth, she stopped, tilting her head to the side. Mina, too, had stopped, backwards spoon hanging in her mouth. Donna shook herself. “Sorry, don’t know where that came from.”  
  
“S’okay, I just have one of those faces.” Mina dismissed, and then her face contorted as she attempted not to cry again. “Just ask Adam.”  
  
Donna frowned, instinctively wanting to say that was ridiculous, but resisting the urge. “What happened exactly?”  
  
Mina slammed her spoon into the bowl, carving a large spoonful out with vigour, looking at anything but the woman’s face. “He went to this party, and this girl spiked his drink with MDMA...”  
  
She didn’t need to finish, Donna knew this story, and Wilf quietly crept away, not wanting to hear such things. “I think Nerys did that to one of my boyfriends once, she swears she didn’t, but I know better.”  
  
“Anyway,” Mina said, wiping her eyes. “Now he’s going on about ‘subconscious desire for space’ and some shite, and I can’t even muster up the courage to go home and face him.”  
  
“Then you’ll just stay here.” Donna said in a tone that brooked no argument. “The couch folds out into a fine bed. It’s not glamourous, but there are no blokes you have to worry about. You're too young to be worrying about that anyway.”  
  
Mina’s eyes went wide. “What about your mum and granddad?”  
  
“Gramps will love it and I’ll deal with my mum.” Donna said firmly. “Now, finish your ice cream, I’ll drop you off at your flat to get some things together while I go into London for an appointment.”  
  
“I can’t thank you enough for this, Donna. You’re brilliant.” Mina replied, brown eyes shining.  
  
“Hey, I know what hard break-ups are like. I had a fiance who tried to feed me to giant spider.” Donna replied, and then paused. Where had  _that_  come from? Sure she had heard about Lance, about how he had supposedly run off with another secretary -- but spiders?  
  
Mina laughed. “You say the most amazing things, Donna.”  
  
“Don’t I just.” Donna replied, distracted, mind full of flashes of fire and ice-cold water. “Don’t I just.”


	4. Chapter 4

Dyoni Chesterton looked up from the test results on one of the many screens in the main base under the Torchwood-owned clinic. "You're late." She said simply, raising an eyebrow at the ginger-haired girl who had just appeared without warning a few feet away from her.   
  
"Unavoidable." Mina replied, shaking out her hair, and taking off the vortex manipulator from her wrist.   
  
"What happened?" Dyoni asked curiously, as she turned the monitor she was looking at so that the younger girl could inspect the results.  
  
Mina ignored the question for a moment, inspecting the test results. "Her body's assimilating a little too fast." She hit a few keys on the keyboard, recalibrating a few of the variables. "We need to slow it down -- the timing has to be perfect. We'll add an inhibitor to the injection today, that should do the trick."  
  
"Mina," Dyoni repeated. "What happened?"  
  
"I ran into Donna this morning and she heard me have a big fight with Adam. So, I'm going to be staying with her for awhile."  
  
"What? What happened? You and Adam have been nothing but perfect since I met you." Dyoni asked, shocked.   
  
"He apparently fell for some sex pheremones and a few glamours and couldn't tell it wasn't me,  _despite_  the psychic link." Mina made a face at the screen, running a simulation of the effect of the medications. "And now he thinks it's his subconscious telling him something."  
  
"Oh, Mina..." Dyoni said in a soft voice. "I'm..."  
  
Mina didn't let her get the second word out. "I'm  _fine._  Let's just get this next treatment done, shall we? I have to go back and pack yet before she gets out of here."  
  
~*~  
  
Donna arrived back at the block of flats, just as Mina was coming into sight with an olive green kit bag. She watched her, unseen for a moment, move around the buildings. She knew she had only known the girl a week, and the rational part of her knew it was ridiculous, that she didn't know anything substantial about the girl, but ever since her memory had gone, she had been relying on her instinct. It seemed to be working, at any rate.  
  
Unfortunately, this meant that when Sylvia came home that evening to Donna finishing up dinner, she was faced with playing host to a strange "friend" of Donna's. This led to Sylvia getting into an argument with her daughter as the much younger girl hid in a corner, trying not to be seen.   
  
Wilf took pity on her, quietly leading her out to his hill as the two argued. When they were far enough away from the house, Mina looked up at him. "Maybe I should go." She said with a shrug. "I can get a room at a hotel or something."  
  
"Don't be ridiculous." Wilf said easily. "Sylvia's just a bit protective of Donna, what with her memory gone and all." He gestured up the hill, telescope barrel in his free hand. "We'll just look at the stars until they're done. There's no interrupting them when they get like that."  
  
He quickly set to putting together and calibrating his telescope. "I'm always on the look out for them aliens, you know?"  
  
"Can't blame you." Mina admitted, lying back on the blanket to stare up at the stars. "Never know when they'll show up." She grinned slightly. "Except Christmas -- something always happens at Christmas."  
  
"I wonder what it'll be this year." Wilf said thoughtfully, not about to debate that fact when he knew very well that it tended to be true.   
  
"Nightmares." Mina said softly, almost too quiet for Wilf to hear. "Everyone will have bad dreams."  
  
Wilf looked at her, where she was looking at the stars and breached the question that had been bubbling in his mind all day, or at least since Donna had something said earlier about the 'last time'. "You knew Donna before, didn't you, when she was travelling."  
  
Mina sat up and looked over at him sadly. "Donna and the Doctor saved my life."  
  
Wilf frowned, looking worried. "The Doctor said if she remembered her mind will burn."  
  
Mina sighed. "I know. But that's why I came -- she saved my life, I want to save hers. She's surviving now -- but the Doctor didn't realise how much he would be taking, and didn't have enough time to figure something out, not really -- and then later, he thought she was happy, had everything she needed..."  
  
"She misses him." Wilf admitted, suddenly looking his age, and almost collapsing in on himself. "All those wonderful things she did..."  
  
"That's why I'm here, to give her back the stars." Mina murmured. "I want to make good on what she did for me."  
  
The two sat in silence, looking up at the stars for a long time, then, an accord reached between them.


	5. Chapter 5

Wilfred Mott was accustomed to late nights. He spent so much of his time watching the stars that it wasn’t uncommon for him to find himself coming back from his hill to a barely lit kitchen. In fact, it was so common, that at first, he didn’t realise he wasn’t alone, until he heard the tell-tale sniffling.  
  
Putting down his thermos, he flicked on the light over the sink and was startled to find Donna weeping. There were no heavy sobs, just small sniffles and almost constant tears. It was so unlike his little general, that he sat beside her and took her hand. “What’s all this now, Donna?”  
  
“He’s so sad.” Donna murmured softly. “He didn’t think any heartbreak could be worse than losing everything -- but now he’s lost even hope. He’s never lost that.” She wiped at her eyes. “He’s being a stupid,  _stupid_  prawn, because I’m not there to stop him, and part of him is in love with the idea of death, while part of him is fighting tooth and nail to survive.” Donna’s hands trembled around her mug of tea, gone cold now. “I don’t even know what I’m saying Gramps, but I miss him. I miss him so much it aches -- and I don’t even know who.”  
  
Wilf wrapped his arms tighter around his granddaughter, and shushed her, letting her cry. “I’m sure, whoever he is, he misses you too, and I’m sure he’s smart enough to come back for you.” He certainly prayed it was so, for both their sakes.  
  
~*~  
  
Donna recovered from her ridiculous cry the next day, and shook herself. Her Gramps was so sweet to her, putting up with insanity that seemed to be leaking from her brain. She was so off-put as to call up the clinic and make an appointment. She didn’t think she’d be able to get Dr. Chesterton at such short notice, but they fit her in before lunch even. So, she wasn’t too upset when she had to sit and wait for longer than usual in the waiting room.  
  
Still, she surprised herself when she recognised one of the women leaving, with a young man. “Sarah Jane!” She said hapspily, knowing instantly that she  _liked_  this woman, though she couldn’t really place where or why. “How are you?”  
  
“Donna?” The older woman said in surprise. “Are you all right? What are you doing here?” Sarah Jane had no idea that the redhead’s memory had been wiped, or that she was back home.  
  
“Dr. Chesterton’s been treating me for headaches, but it’s been creating the oddest dreams, I thought I ought to see her bout it.” Donna smiled at Luke and held out her hand. “Is this your son, Luke?”  
  
“Yes.” Sarah Jane said easily. “Luke this is Donna, a friend of the Doctor.”  
  
Somehow, Donna knew she wasn’t talking about Dr. Chesteron, and she would have asked more, but the nurse came out and called for Donna to follow her back, just then, as if the universe wanted to keep what she knew from her own mind just a little longer.  
  
~*~  
  
“I understand why you’re concerned, Donna, I really am.” Dyoni said with a cluck of her tongue. “I did warn you that we didn’t know what kind of effect the treatments would have on your memory. At this point, however, I would be concerned about changing your treatments, since the headaches have disappeared, but if you want to risk it...”  
  
“No,” Donna said quickly. “I don’t want to risk the headaches coming back. I’ll take the bugs and big blue box.”  
  
“Big blue box?” Dyoni said, somewhat surprised. “My parents talk about a blue box all the time, a police box.”  
  
“Really?” Donna said.  
  
“Really.” Dyoni replied. “I shouldn’t do this, but...” She grabbed a paper towel from above the sink and scrawled a number on it. “Here, give them a call, maybe they can help. It’s a long shot, but it can’t hurt.”  
  
Donna took the towel, grateful for the phone number, and found herself wishing she had asked Sarah Jane for hers, before leaving the clinic and heading home, wondering why the blue box was so important.


	6. Chapter 6

In the final days of Earth, everyone had bad dreams. Well, almost everyone. In those days of December, when the first of the dreams came, Mina was a hyper little bee in the kitchen, and when the Mott-Noble family came down to breakfast, they found a spread and a smiling girl that didn't quite fit with the low, disturbing feeling they had felt since waking. 

Only Wilf had an inkling, remembering her warning that everyone would have bad dreams. They certainly didn't seem to be bothering her, but perhaps she had seen them already. He didn't know anything about how time travel worked, after all. He resolved in that moment to begin looking for the Doctor. 

~*~

Later that day, Donna found herself standing nervously in front of a very nice house in Cambridge. She had no idea why she had even felt the urge to go through with this -- it seemed so crazy, meeting her doctor's parents because of some dreams about a blue police box. Didn't that violate some laws about conflict of interest or something?

But if it got her answers, her suspicions wouldn't matter.

She took a deep breath and knocked more gently than she usually would on the door.

The woman who opened the door looked, at first glance, too young to be Dyoni's mother. "You must be Donna." She said easily. "I'm Barbara, come in, come in. So glad you decided to visit -- you sounded very unsure on the phone."

"Well, it's not everyday a doctor tells you to talk to her parents." Donna said, looking more closely and seeing fine lines around the woman's eyes.

"It's not every day someone has dreams about a flying police box." Barbara answered easily.

It was probably the oddest conversation Donna had ever had. Before she could really think about it, they were talking about Nero and Pompeii, a gigantic brain and being shrunk to a tiny size -- all with an ease of familiarity, without any real explanations being needed. Something in Donna even kept her from asking serious questions about who and how until after she was wandering home again.

~*~

"You've been seeing a woman?" Mina repeated, later that night, looking at the stars with Wilf. "What did she look like?"

"Just...a woman." Wilf said as he peered through his telescope. "Professional looking, older than Donna, but not as old as me, sort of brown hair." He made a face at trying to describe someone who was so mysterious. "I wish you had come to the church with me."

"I don't do churches." Mina replied, distracted. "Well, I don't know who she could be, but she seems to want to protect the Doctor, so I guess we'll add her to our merry band." She chuckled slightly to herself, staring up at the stars. "It's almost the time of drums."

"Drums?" Wilf repeated. "What does that mean?" He had already put out the call for his organisation to help him find the Doctor tomorrow. 

"It means, he comes tomorrow." Mina said slowly, tapping her fingers on a rock. "So much happens tomorrow. And we give Donna back her stars."

Wilf looked over at her, curious, again, about the friend Donna had brought home from before. Who had travelled through space and time to help her. "What will you do once she's saved?"

"Me?" Mina answered. "I'll go somewhere, somewhen, where there's war and strife and people to help. There's always someone who needs help, always another place to run."


	7. Chapter 7

Wilf knew grim determination when he saw it. He might not have seen war the way many did, but he knew the resolution of someone who had to do something that they were unsure of, or something that would put them in harm's way, but that they felt they must. He saw it in Donna's friend that morning, as she poked at sodden banoffee crunch cereal, unusually quiet.   
  
Donna noticed it too. "Would you like to come with me today, Mina?" She asked.. "I know it's hard, being away from your parents at Christmas, and with Adam being a berk..."  
  
"I'd like that." Mina said, with a small smile.   
  
"Our Donna will take care of you." Wilfred said happily, and smiled a bit when the girl winked at him. Breakfast passed slowly, but by 1300 hours, Donna and her friend had left, and Sylvia had gone upstairs to do whatever it was she needed to do, so he could make his excuses of Christmas drinks and head out on his mission. The silver cloak would get it done.  
  
~*~  
  
And they did. The poor Doctor looked so perplexed when The Silver Cloak struck, and he had a bit of a hard time getting him away from the lovely Minnie, but he finally had him settled down in the right cafe at the right time, or at least, he hoped so. The Doctor was the best thing that had ever happened to his Donna, and if Mina was right, well, this would be golden.  
  
The Doctor looked as bad as Donna had said though, more drawn and thin than usual, a kind of resignation he had seen in soldiers too. Like he was marching to his death, so Wilf did his best, filling the time with recollections of what had happened before, trying to find the right words.  
  
"I keep seeing things, Doctor, this face, at night...I..."  
  
"Who are you?" The Doctor asked, shocking Wilfred. Didn't he know? He almost felt offended.   
  
"I'm Wilfred Mott."  
  
"No, people have waited hundreds of years to find me, and then you manage it in a couple of hours."  
  
"Well, I'm just lucky, I suppose."   
  
"No, we keep on meeting, Wilf. Over and over again, like something's still connecting us."  
  
"Yeah, but what's so important about me?" Wilf asked, little knowing he was echoing Donna's thoughts much of the time she and the Doctor had flown together.  
  
"Exactly. Why you?" There was a pause, as if he was coming to terms with something. "I'm going to die."  
  
The announcement shocked Wilf. "Well, so am I, one day."  
  
Somehow, the Doctor couldn't bear the thought of that. "Don't you dare." he said, with a shake of his head, even though he knew it was inevitable.  
  
"All right, I'll try not to." Wilf replied with a chuckle.  
  
The Doctor swallowed as if he was trying not to cry. "But I was told… ‘He will knock four times.’ That was a prophecy. Knock four times and then…"  
  
Wilf hesitated, struggling with the idea. "Yeah, but I… thought… When I saw you before, you said your people could change, like, your whole body."  
  
"I can still die. If I’m killed before regeneration then I’m dead." Wilf struggled with that as the Doctor leaned forward. "Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away. " Wilf saw his lip tremble and he remembered again people too young, still afraid, even though the war itself was over...sure of their death, and his heart broke a littlle. For the Doctor, for Donna, even for the strange woman in the church and Mina.   
  
The Doctor was looking out the window, and saw why Wilf had brought him here, to this specific cafe.   
  
~*~  
  
The Doctor stared out the window, feeling like he couldn't bear to rip his eyes away. There was Donna, his Donna, searching through her pockets, looking straight ahead, looking away from him, all flame red hear and a serious expression.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I had too." Wilf apologised, but the Doctor barely heard him, moments ticking through his mind as he stared at her, separated from him by only feet through a slight pane of glass.  
  
"Look, she can get better." Wilf said.  
  
"Stop it," The Doctor replied, finally ripping his eyes away from Donna to stare at Wilf for just a moment, before his eyes went back, without his say-so, as if they were starving for the sight of her.  
  
Wilf was hopeful. "No, but you’re so clever. Can’t you bring her memory back? Just go to her now! Go on, just run across the street and say hello!"  
  
The Doctor shook his head, tears coming to his eyes despite his mental orders for that not to happen. He wanted to, he wanted that more than anything else. "If she ever remembers me, her mind will burn and she will die!"  
  
The Doctor watched as Donna threw something in the backseat and wagged her finger at the cop, her expression one that could make Cybermen run away in fear. "Don’t you touch this car!" Both men chuckled, and the Doctor shook his head. "She's not changed."  
  
Just then, a sprightly young ginger girl popped up from behind the nearest Christmas tree, waving for Donna, and holding half-a-dozen shopping bags. She was familliar, but it took the Doctor a minute to realise why.   
  
"Ah, there she is." Wilfred said. "That's Donna's friend, Mina James, she's been staying with us. They met in Donna's astronomy class at Birkbeck."  
  
"I know her." The Doctor said in shock, watching the tableau as they loaded the bags into the car. "We met her before."  
  
Wilf knew that, but he kept playing along. "She's a sweet girl, her boyfriend tossed her out."  
  
The Doctor kept trying to place her, but then something clicked. "Nah, that doesn't sound right, he was ready to defend her to the death on Midnight." He stopped as he realised what he said. "Midnight! Donna and I met her on Midnight!" He was panicked suddenly. "You've got to get her away from her, if Donna remembers..."  
  
"She's good for her, Doctor." Wilf said, with a shake of his head. "She makes her get involved again. Mindd you, she still gets this look on her face, like she's the saddest person in the world and doesn't know why..." He trailed off. "Found her crying in the kitchen not that long ago, crying her eyes out, because someone had lost hope, and was being a 'stupid prawn.'"  
  
The Doctor looked serious. Donna shouldn't have known that, something was going on, and it had something to do with that girl. Now, all he had to do was save Donna from himself, again, and save Time itself before being killed by the Master.  
  
And time was running out.


	8. Chapter 8

Christmas at the Nobles was very interesting. Mina found herself sitting at the table, tapping out an all-too-familiar four beat rhythm with her foot as she played with bits of sparkly ribbon and paper, trying to be upbeat. “Thank you all for having me over Christmas.” Mina said, for what was the third time in as many days.  
  
“Don’t be silly, we love having you.” Donna said easily as she puttered about, making her special Christmas margaritas.   
  
“Though I’m sure you’re family misses you.” Sylvia said, with a little look at Donna.   
  
“Now then, steady on. It's never too early for margaritas, that's what I say. I forgot to get lemons so I used oranges instead. It's all fruit, same difference.” Donna said with a shake of her head. The implication was there that one needed Christmas margaritas to deal with Sylvia Noble at Christmas. “Yes, you can have one too, Mina.”  
  
Sylvia unwrapped her gift, a pretty striped sweater. “Oh, now that's lovely. Look at that. Absolutely beautiful. Love from Donna. Did you keep the receipt?”  
  
Mina smiled, and did her best to ignore Sylvia, watching as Wilf unwrapped his present from Donna, curious. She got up on her tiptoes to read the cover of it, and considered, quietly, still holding her presents to her chest.   
  
“Yes, I did.” Donna told her mother, before turning to Wilf with a bit of a smile. “Come on, Gramps. You've been a right misery ever since you got up. Do you like it then, the book?”  
  
Wilf was confused. Books weren’t really his thing, and Donna knew him well enough to know that. Well, books that weren’t crosswords. “Joshua Naismith? I mean, what'd you get me this for?”  
  
Donna stopped, her head tilting, getting a far-away look on her face. “I don't know. I just saw it in the shop and thought of you. It just felt like the sort of thing you should have.”  
  
Wilf looked at her carefully, and Mina checked her watch, worrying her lip slightly, before Sylvia broke the moment with a laugh at a very rude Christmas card from Charlie Morton.  
  
~*~  
  
It wasn’t long before Mina was bouncing up, handing out presents as well, as everyone readied themselves for listening to the Queen’s Speech. “Sorry they’re not better.” She admitted, handing a gold-wrapped gift to Wilf.   
  
“Now, don’t worry about a thing like that. Thank you very much, Mina.” He shushed everyone then, gathering them around the telly like any good and proper patriarch to hear Her Majesty speak. “Now come on, sit down. Show respect. Come on, you lot.” He settled in and saluted as the queen appeared, only for the woman from the church to appear again -- this time on the screen. He looked to everyone else for a hint of anything.  
  
“Events are moving, Wilfred.”  
  
Wilf felt a little mad, talking to the telly. “Eh?”  
  
“Faster than we thought. Something’s changing in time.”  
  
Wilf looked around him. “Oi, can you see that?”  
  
Donna responded, but she wasn’t seeing what he was seeing. “Frankly, I’d tell Her Majesty it’s time for trouser suits.”  
  
“No, no, no, that’s not the...” Wilf said, only for the woman from the church, the woman on his television, to speak to him again.   
  
“Only you can see. Only you stand at the heart of coincidence. The eye of the change.”  
  
“Why, what have I done?”  
  
“You're an old soldier, sir. Only you were too late. The war was won and passed you by.”  
  
“I did my duty.”  
  
“You never killed a man.”  
  
“No, I didn't. No, I did not, no, but, don't say that like it's shameful.”  
  
“The time will come when you must take arms.”  
  
“Who are you?”  
  
“Tell the Doctor nothing of this. His life could still be saved, so long as you tell him nothing.”  
  
The old soldier, standing at the heart of coincidence, turned and only saw his daughter and granddaughter, completely oblivious, Mina having disappeared to who knew where. Wilf swallowed hard, and stood, heading for his bedroom, for his old suitcase, for the old box from from Finnegan’s of Bond Street, he had hoped never to open again. There, his old service revolver, wrapped in an old tea towel. He hefted it in his hands, and strangely it felt more like a burden than it used too as he listened to the women laugh.  
  
Something chinked against his window and he moved over to it, looking out to see the Doctor, looking for him, and then running for the corner, for the blue box. He turned, shoving the revolver into his pants and grabbing the book Donna had given him -- ready for anything, he thought.  
  
When he glanced up, Mina was standing in the doorway, holding a glass of water, his gold-wrapped present, and something else.   
  
“Here.” She said, holding out her hand, where lay two white tablets. “Take these,” she said softly. “I’ll try to keep them from wondering where you are.”  
  
“What are they?” Wilf asked, even as he reached out and took them, trusting her, but glad for the water with the odd aftertaste.  
  
“Something to keep anything from happening to you.” She said with a grin, kissing his cheek. “I know you’re worrying, but do  _try_  to enjoy it a bit.” She plopped the gold present in his arms. “Now, hurry, before Sylvia wonders what you’re up too.”


	9. Chapter 9

Wilf headed outside, and around the corner of the police box came the Doctor, walking with purpose, and maybe a little scared. That surprised him, as he couldn't remember the Doctor being frightened before. "I lost him. I was unconscious. He’s still on Earth. I can smell him, but he’s too far away."  
  
Wilf was more worried than the Doctor gave him credit for, but he didn't quite understand what he meant. "Can you park there? Is it okay, I mean? What if Donna sees it?"  
  
The Doctor didn't answer, seemingly getting agitated and focused on Wilf. "You’re the only one, Wilf. The only connection I can think of. You’re involved. If I could just -– work out how. Tell me, have you seen anything. I don’t know, anything strange, anything odd..."  
  
Wilf was unsure, the woman had told him not to say anything, and the Doctor had reacted so violently to Mina, that he was unsure if he  _should_  say anything. "Well, there was a… " He trailed off, not sure what to say.  
  
"What? What is it –- tell me!" The Doctor demanded, all nervous energy.   
  
"Well, it was –- no, it’s nothing." Wilf mumbled, he had to keep the woman a secret. She had said so. He could still be saved, but only if he didn't know.  
  
The Doctor got desperate, and it tinged his voice. "Think, think, think. Maybe – maybe something out of the blue, something connected to your life. Something!"  
  
Wilf paused, looking toward the house. "Well, Donna was a bit strange. She had a funny little moment this morning, all because of that book." He bit his lip, wondering, and then added. "And Mina, when she saw it, looked at her watch, even though she's not going anywhere."  
  
The Doctor looked confused. "What book?"  
  
"I'll go and get it." Wilf offered, going into the house through the back garden, and picking up the book, holding it out to the Doctor. "Right, his name’s Joshua Naismith."  
  
The Doctor looked at the cover, a little amazed. "That’s the man! I was shown him by the Ood."  
  
"By the what?" Wilf asked in confusion, unsure of what it was. He wanted to know what was going on. He  _needed_  to know.  
  
"By the Ood." The Doctor said, as easily as if he had said 'By Maisie down the street there.'  
  
That didn't help Wilf place it any. "What’s the Ood?"  
  
"Oh, just the Ood. It’s all part of the convergence." The Doctor said, a bit dismissively, before he realised something. "Maybe touching Donna’s subconscious. She always knew on some level." He smiled happily. "Oh, she’s still fighting for us even now. The DoctorDonna."  
  
And then, it all fell apart, as Sylvia walked out the door, with Mina trailing behind her, trying her damnedest to get the woman back in the house. "Dad, what are you up to?"  
  
"Wilf's  _fine_ , Mrs. Noble...Sylvia. He probably just went out for some fresh air." She sort of gestured at Wilf and The Doctor, the latter of which was glaring at her.   
  
"You!" The Doctor said.  
  
"You!" Said Sylvia.  
  
"You can't be here!" The Doctor said, angrily at Mina.   
  
" _She_  can't be here?  _You_  can't be here!" Sylvia shot back. "Get out of here!"  
  
"Merry Christmas." The Doctor and Mina said at the same time, making Wilf smile.  
  
"Oh, Merry Christmas to all! But she can’t see you! What if she remembers?" Sylvia said desperately.  
  
"Mum? Where are those tweezers?" Came Donna's voice from inside the house.   
  
"Oh for..." Mina said, rolling her eyes slightly, and handing Wilf his present for the third time. "Here. I've really liked spending time with you, Wilf." And then she darted into the house. "Hey Donna, I think I saw where she left the tweezers."  
  
"Go!" Sylvia hissed, glad that somehow, Mina had distracted them, though she was beginning to suspect the girl even more now. The Doctor had recognised her. That could mean she was a danger to Donna. Maybe.  
  
"I'm going!" The Doctor replied, turning.  
  
"Me too!" Wilf replied, turning as well.  
  
"Oh, no you don’t!" Sylvia said, chasing after the pair. "Dad! I’m warning you!"  
  
"Bye bye! See you later!" Wilf said, waving without turning around.  
  
"Stay right where you are!" Sylvia demanded.  
  
"You can’t come with me." The Doctor said in bewilderment looking at Wilf as he opened the door to the TARDIS.  
  
"Well, you're not leaving me with her!" Wilf replied, pointing at an angry Sylvia.  
  
"Dad!" Sylvia said, in that same screechy voice.  
  
The Doctor glanced at her, and then at Wilf. "Fair enough." It was Christmas. he couldn't imagine what Christmas with Sylvia was like. There had to be a reason Donna hated Christmas so much, and he would have laid odds it had something to do with her mother.  
  
"Just you listen to me, I forbid it!" Sylvia continued, as they bundled into the TARDIS, and as though she were the parent and Wilf the child, instead of the other way around.  
  
"Get out of there! Doctor! Bring my father back right now! Come back here!" She shouted as they disappeared. "Come back here, I said! Come back!  
  
Over in the garden, Mina waved with a little sad smile. "Have fun, and don't forget to run."


	10. Chapter 10

Wilf had known that little box had to be bigger than it looked, logically, there'd be no room for both Donna and the Doctor to fit otherwise, but he wasn't quite expecting it to look like it did. The turrets reminded him of houses built inside banyan trees. He barely noticed as the Doctor raced around some sort of center controls, pressing and pushing and switching things.  
  
"Naismith!" the Doctor declared, shoving the book back at Wilf. "If I can track him down…" He realised only when he glanced up, the way the older man was looking around, like so many first-timers, that he had missed the usual explanation. Not that he didn't have reasons to be distracted, he had to stop the end of time, convince his childhood frenemy to not die again, and keep his wife's head from exploding all before he died. He was a bit distracted. "Ah. Right. Yes. Bigger on the inside. D’you like it?"  
  
He wasn't quite expecting the response he got.  
  
Wilf could have said a lot of things, but they all seemed predictable. "I thought it'd be cleaner."  
  
" _Cleaner?"_  The Doctor said in amazement, wagging his finger at the older man. "I can take you home right now!"   
  
Wilf ignored that, partially because he definitely did not  _want_  to go home right now. Also, partially because he had a question. "Listen, Doctor. If this is a time machine, that man you're chasing, why can't you just pop back to yesterday and catch him?"  
  
"I can't go back inside my own timeline. I have to stay relative to the Master within the causal nexus. Understand?" The Doctor explained.  
  
"Not a word." Wilf said, shaking his head. It was like listening to Mina when they were looking at the stars--all orbits, speed of light, stellar mass function and dark matter, a lot of words he didn't understand put together with words he did in a way that he couldn't get his mind around. Still, it never hurt to listen.   
  
"Welcome aboard." the Doctor said, shaking Wilf's hand with a grin. He always preferred when his companions admitted they didn't understand and let them teach them, or just wondered at it all. His eyes were caught by the gold paper of the unopened present. "What did that girl give you?"  
  
Wilf shrugged. "I don't know. Should we be worrying about this now?"  
  
She's up to something." The Doctor said in suspicion. "Can you open it?"  
  
Wilf didn't think it was going to be dangerous, and so, he opened it carefully, pulling out a framed picture. How she had it taken, he didn't know, but it was Wilf and Mina, sitting on the hill, looking up at the stars with mugs of hot chocolate. "It's a picture." He said, showing it to the Doctor.  
  
"Nah," The Last Time Lord replied, taking it gently as he pushed another lever, looking it all over. "The girl traveled here for a reason, everything she does has to have a reason." He eyed the constellations, but saw nothing off, he scanned it with the sonic, but found nothing. "What was she up too?"  
  
Wilf just shrugged. "It's just a picture."  
  
~*~  
  
Wilf walked excitedly out of the ship-shaped-like-a-police-box, and had to resist the urge to do something childish, like dance about. He had known, of course, that they would be moving, but knowing and  _seeing_  were two different things. "We’ve moved! We’ve really moved!"  
  
The Doctor looked around, checking things briefly. "You should stay here."  
  
Oh, that wasn't going to happen! It was Wilf's job to make sure the alien didn't get himself killed, for Donna's sake if nothing else. "No, not bloody likely!"  
  
The Doctor was a little shocked at Wilf's language. "And don’t swear! Hold on!" Remembering from last time, the Doctor carefully put the TARDIS out of sync with the timestream. "Just a second out of sync. Don’t want the Master finding the TARDIS. That’s the last thing we need!"  
  
~*~  
  
"Aha! Tweezers!" Donna crowed victoriously as she found the tool that had been missing from her manicure kit some fifteen minutes after she had started looking. It was almost as if they moved on their own, because, really, who put tweezers in the junk drawer?  
  
Mina laughed from where she sat next to Donna on the floor, going through the contents of the junk drawer that they had judiciously thrown on the floor to sort through, as anyone who has searched through a proper junk drawer knew was absolutely necessary. "Why were we looking for tweezers again?"  
  
"Nerys is having a boxing day party, and I am  _not_  showing up with bushy eyebrows." She grinned at the girl. "Come on, help me get all this stuff back in the drawer, and then we can go upstairs and I'll show you how to put on make-up." She started cramming bits and bobs, old paper clips, safety pins, bag clips, loose change, one red knit glove and various other trifles into the drawer. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear this drawer was dimensionally transcendental."  
  
Mina helped in silence for a minute. "Donna?" She questioned quietly. "How'd you know?"  
  
"Know what, sweetie?" Donna asked, looking up at her.   
  
"That I don't know how to put on make-up." Well, there was also that dimensionally transcendental thing, but Mina knew how she knew that, even if Donna didn't.   
  
Donna laughed slightly, flicking a ginger curl over her shoulder. "Honey, any girl of eighteen who doesn't so much as seem to own a tube of lip gloss given to her by an overbearing relative or friend, just never learned how." She ruffled Mina's hair. "Especially when they go on sightseeing trips with boys and don't realise it's a date."  
  
Mina turned scarlet, and checked her watch surreptitiously, while she wasn't staring at the floor. "Okay."  
  
"Now go get the vac, before Mum has our hides, and then we can go do girly things."


	11. Chapter 11

Being raised with one fairly stern matron who had no fashion sense whatever, on a planet devoted to war, Mina found Donna's explanations of foundation and lipstick and lipliner and eyeliner and this and that more confusing than particle physics. Still, Donna had a way of setting her at ease, and she recalled, with a bit of a bittersweet smile, how the woman had looked out for her on Midnight, when she had been so frightened. She had gotten so comfortable in fact, looking at the strange reflection of herself in the mirror that she completely lost track of time until her watch buzzed on her wrist.   
  
"Oh, um...I have to make a call." She told Donna, with a little blush. "I'll be back in a few minutes."  
  
Donna grinned at her. "Okay," she said easily. "I'll get us another drink awhile."  
  
"That would be great." Mina said in relief, going downstairs and ducking outside with her purse -- but instead of pulling out her phone, she strapped on her vortex manipulator and disappeared with a snapping, fizzing noise.   
  
~*~  
  
Donna had been having a fairly nice Christmas, though for some reason, she kept worrying that Buckingham Palace was about to be destroyed by the Titanic like had happened in her dream the night before. She had gone to the kitchen and started to grab to glasses for water to fight off the inevitable Christmas Hangover, when she glanced up at her mother who seemed to be shaking.   
  
"Mum?" She questioned worriedly. There was something wrong, she could feel it. Then it started, the shaking. Not normal shaking, like a chill, or even a seizure, shaking as though all of Sylvia's features were elastic. "Mum?!" She said, louder this time. She turned, looking around for Mina. "Mina?!"  
  
Not knowing what else to do, she grabbed for her phone, and hit speed dial.  
  
~*~  
  
Wilf, fumbled with his gun for a moment before getting out his mobile. "Donna?"  
  
"Where are you?" Donna's voice was strained. "Something's wrong with Mum."  
  
Wilf could just make out Sylvia's voice saying something about a face. If everyone was seeing it, if the Master had done something to humans... "Wait a minute, I mean, what about you? Can’t you see anything?"  
  
Donna's voice was a bit sharp, and still worried. "I can see her! That’s bad enough!"  
  
Before Wilf could answer Donna, his mobile rang again, only this time it was winston. Bloody Winston. Didn't he know an emergency when he saw one? Wilf wasn't 999!  
  
~*~  
  
Mina appeared in a room shaped like a honeycomb, and made a face as alarms started going off. She flicked her hair at the door, and moved over to a wall, inputting several codes, before it lifted to expose an arsenal. She set to strapping on several guns, voice turning biting as the door slid open. "You set alarms?"  
  
The young man who had entered blinked several times. "I uh...wanted to make sure you couldn't sneak out on me without talking."  
  
Mina looked up as she tightened a thigh holster. "I don't have time to talk, Adam." She said sharply. "Maybe later."  
  
Right." Adam replied. "You, uh...look nice."  
  
"if I'm going to save the Most Important Woman in the Universe, I can at least look good doing it." She tossed her hair at him and disappeared again.  
  
~*~  
  
Donna ran a hand through her hair in horror at what she was seeing. Her mother had turned into a man, right before her eyes. It triggered something in her mind, and the pain she had almost forgotten about in the time since meeting Doctor Chesterton hit her full force. "But they’ve changed! Granddad, it’s like – like the sort of thing that happened – before."  
  
The flashes blasted her mind. She didn't notice, in her confusion and pain, the sudden appearance of the girl the Nobles had taken in behind her. "My head! Oh, my head. Oh, my head!"  
  
~*~  
  
Wilf found himself tied to a chair. It was an unusual position, but if he was honest, he wasn't worried about himself. He was worried about Donna and the Doctor. He was old, he was unnecessary, all he did was stand at the heart of some coincidence. What convinced him he could do something in this thing?  
  
Then his mobile rang.  
  
The Master turned suddenly. "But th-that’s a mobile."  
  
Somehow, Donna was immune to whatever was going on, it couldn't be anyone else, and Wilf had to protect Donna. He forced a chuckle. "Yeah, it’s mine. Let me turn it off."  
  
The Master wasn't buying it. "No, no, no, no, no, no. I don’t think you understand. Everybody on this planet is me. And I’m not phoning you, so who the hell is that?!"  
  
Wilf struggled for some excuse as the Master searched him. He was completely useless at this. Maybe he should have stayed behind with Sylvia after all. "Nobody, I tell you, it’s nothing, it’s probably one of them ringback calls."  
  
The Master was distracted by the service revolver, and held it up to show the Doctor. "Ooh, look at this!" He then turned back to Wilf, mockingly. "Good man!"  
  
It didn't take long for The Master to find the phone. "Donna. Who’s Donna?"  
  
Wilf was running out of time, and he felt completely helpless, he wanted to apologise to the Doctor who was strapped to a table. "She’s no one! Just leave it!"  
  
The Master hit the button, answering the call.  
  
~*~  
  
"Gramps, don’t hang up, you’ve gotta help me! We ran out! Everyone was changing!" Donna said desperately, looking behind her. "I found Mina, but Mum...she changed!"  
  
Donna struggled, trying to get Wilf to answer. She could tell the phone was on, but, he wasn't answering her. "Gramps, I can’t hear you."  
  
Mina grabbed Donna's free hand and pulled her along the lane, but as she moved on autopilot, Donna focused on the call. "Can you still hear me? Can you hear me?"  
  
And then things all fell apart, as they ran out the alley, Wilf ordering her to run, without so much as an explanation. She did, but she didn't know why, and she felt like crying because of the pressure in her head.  
  
~*~

"I’m still hungry!"  
  
Mina noted the appearance of the Masters with a shake of her head. "Five on two? There's just not enough of me to go around." She didn't run though, she tried to lure several of them towards her, firing off several shots that dropped them to the asphalt with cracks of the bodies hitting the ground, but no injury.   
  
~*~  
  
They're everywhere!"  
  
Donna shrieked, hand on her head. "But it's not just them. I can see those things again.... Those creatures!" She was beginning to hyperventilate. " _Why do I see a giant wasp?!_ "  
  
She heard her Gramps telling her not to think about it, as he had in the first few days, brushing her hair and telling her that it didn't matter, but the pain was too much. "But it hurts! My head!" She felt herself press harder against the wall, her entire body feeling as though it was going to burn up. "It keeps getting hotter…And hotter! And hotter! And hotter! And hotter!"  
  
Then...she screamed.  
  
~*~  
  
Mina was thrown into the wall, feeling burns form across her skin as the golden energy forming around Donna knocked out the Masters that were still walking. Her ears were ringing, but she heard Wilf on the phone that had been thrown almost as far and picked it up, voice rough.  
  
"We'll be there soon Wilf." She coughed a little. "When Donna's done regenerating."


	12. Chapter 12

"Regenerating?" Wilf repeated, voice strained. "What does that mean, when she's done regenerating?" He trusted the girl, but he could still hear Donna screaming.  
  
The reaction of the other two to his words were almost funny. The Doctor, from behind his bonds had gone bug-eyed, and the Master looked between the two other men in confusion, before turning on the Doctor. "How did  _you_  make a new Time Lord?"  
  
Mina made a face. "Like what happens to the Doctor when he dies, only without a full change, since the energy is busy rewriting a brand new interior biology, which is slightly more complicated." Mina kicked an unconscious Master lightly as the initial flare of golden energy dissipated. "Looks like the boil's over. See you soon." She hung up the mobile without waiting for a response.   
  
"Mina?" Wilf said. "Mina what's going on!"  
  
The Master moved over to the Doctor and pulled off the gag impatiently. "How did you make a new Time Lord?!" His voice was a bit petulant, as if the Doctor had somehow taken his new toy and spoiled it by copying.  
  
For once, the Doctor was just as perplexed. "I didn't! I mean, I left her with a defence mechanism, but it should have just knocked her and any threat in the area unconscious. It couldn't have done  _that._ "  
  
~*~  
  
Mina crept closer to Donna, slowly, still holding the cell phone in her hand. "Donna?" She said cautiously. "How are you feeling?"  
  
Donna dropped her head with a slight gasp, shaking it out as if to clear it. When she looked up at Mina, there was something there that had been missing. "You were at Midnight!"  
  
Mina grinned. "I was. You saved my life." She gave a little shrug. "Someone needed to save you."   
  
Donna considered this. "And why exactly are you running about with guns?"  
  
Mina made a face. "They're stun guns! And did you miss the bit about how we were about to get _eaten_?"  
  
Donna considered that. "You're grounded when we get back, Missy. Now, how do we go find that prawn of a husband of mine?"  
  
Mina gaped at her. "Grounded? You can't ground me!"  
  
"Just watch me." Donna said in a tone that brokered no argument. "Now, stupid skinny Martian with the cute bum, where is he?"  
  
Mina made a face that was one step away from sticking her tongue out at that. "Joshua Naismith's compound. Slightly complicated, but I have a way to get us in." Mina said, holding up her wrist. "Vortex manipulator."  
  
"Less talk, more manipulator." Donna said, hands on her hips.  
  
~*~  
  
Donna was trying to put everything back together. The holes were slotting back into her memory fairly easily -- probably because she now had a Time Lord brain to go along with that Time Lord consciousness that should have killed her. She was feeling a little nauseous and had to get used to the sound of two hearts beating in her chest, but it was better than not knowing. Better than being just a temp again, even if some of the Doctor's smarts had leaked out. At least now why she was good at science made sense.   
  
The manipulator dropped them into a room with several guards, and as Donna was getting her bearings from the rough ride, Mina had her stun guns out again, quickly putting several Masters to sleep. The younger girl gestured to the door. "They should be right beyond that door."  
  
Donna banished all her nervousness and insecurities as best she could. She took a deep breath and opened the ornate wooden doors, taking in the sight before her. Husband and Grandfather bound, psychopath looking annoyed and phasing as though put through an X-Ray machine at the airport.   
  
"Oi, Spaceman!" She said in her best brassed-off-ginger-voice. "What part of 'No, please, anything but that,' didn't you understand?"  
  
Despite getting scolded, The Doctor's face exploded into smiles. "Donna Noble, you are brilliant!"   
  
Donna cracked a smile. "Yeah, yeah -- don't think a few compliments is going to get you off the couch for stealing my memories, running off in the TARDIS, and apparently playing some slap and tickle with your old school chum."  
  
The Master watched this with interest. "She's fiery." He snapped his fingers to summon more of his duplicates. "Ah well, say buh-bye to the freak, everyone."  
  
Mina, who had been slinking along, trying to be unnoticed, found herself suddenly held from behind -- despite the scene, The Master had noticed her. So, she shot the one holding her in the foot.   
  
"No guns!" The Doctor squawked at her, trying to regain control, even with the silly little smile on his face from being reunited with Donna.   
  
Mina's mouth fell open in shock, and she dropped an empty stun rifle, picking a pistol from a holster at her leg instead. "They're  _stun_  guns! I travel back in time, spend  _months_  here, after hatching a plan with loads of  _your_  friends, all to give you _your_  wife back, being away so long that Adam fell for some tarted up strumpet with a bad glamour and some sex pheromones, and you're going to complain about  _stun guns?_ " She couldn't have sounded anymore like a teenager if she stamped her foot. " _I'm sorry I couldn't find a teaspoon!_ "  
  
The Master laughed. "You're getting in trouble with all your women, Doctor. I'm beginning to see why you like Earthgirls so much. Lucy was never this temperamental."  
  
Mina shot him a look. "Bite me." She said sullenly.   
  
The Master leered at her, licking his lips as his skin phased again. "Is that an invitation?"  
  
"How'd you turn Donna into a Time Lord?" The Doctor asked, trying to save the suspicious girl from the fate of being eaten like some of the Master's other victims since he came back wrong, by distracting him with the puzzle piece he had asked about earlier.   
  
"You missed some variables." Mina said with a shrug. "Multiple injections of Time Lord plasma with the right vitamin regimen...all I did was organise it with Torchwood One, and get plasma from Jenny. She seemed to want her Mum back as much as I felt indebted to you both for saving my life. It was mostly her idea."  
  
Donna whipped around and stared at her, as everyone else in the room said in one voice, "Jenny?"


	13. Chapter XIII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina reveals a few bombshells as the rescue continues.

Mina was startled by that reaction. “Yes…?” She said, drawing the word out into a question. She gestured slightly. “Blonde, about that tall, born from the machine on Messaline? Is any of this ringing any bells?”

“She’s dead.” The Doctor said hollowly. She didn’t even last a full day.”

“Neither did your hand, but you’ve got two.” Mina said with a shrug. “You’d have to ask her about it. I don’t know all the details.”

Donna took the opportunity to glare at her husband, since she wasn’t close enough to smack him. “I told  you we should have stayed for the funeral!”

“As much fun as watching your little domestic row is, I have a bit of a timetable.” The Master said, snapping his fingers.

Mina rolled her eyes and began tapping on one of the still-holstered pistols, tapping in a very specific rhythm. “Do you even know what you’re looking for?” She asked him. “This timetable of yours, all this destruction. Do you have a point? The chaos won’t make you feel better.”

“Mina, don’t antagonise the psychopath!” Donna hissed at her, but it was too late.

The Master flipped toward her again, another guard-master coming up behind her. “You can hear it? The drums?”

“What’s it matter if I can?” Mina asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Everyone is you now. You have six billion people who can hear it.” She softened, just a bit. “You’re surrounded by you, but you just want someone to get it, don’t you? The Doctor, he should get it, he should understand better than anyone, the blood and the chaos and the fight, but he holds himself back so much, more than you can, and six billion of you are just screaming into the void, wanting something to find you.”

“Who are you?” The Master demanded, putting his hand around her throat and hoisting her against a piece of machinery.

While The many Masters had been distracted by the teenager who was going to get a stern talking to when they got out of this, Donna had managed to get The Doctor free, just as one of the clones came back to consciousness. She had gotten very skilled ever since her first encounter with the Doctor and handcuffs.

“Hey!” The clone said groggily, as the original Master expounded on triangulation and finding the drums to Mina, as he phased again, his entire body going luminescent. It stopped him long enough for him to loosen his grip and turn around.

Mina, grateful for the air, slid to her feet and rubbed her throat. ‘Get out!’ she mouthed at them.

The Doctor shook his head, mouth set.

“I can follow it back, you’ll see.” The Master said, phasing again as the newly awakened clone went after the just-freed Time Lord. “And then you’ll see the drums are real, you’ll know it!”

“I believe you.” Mina croaked, voice slightly hoarse. “You don’t need to prove it to me.”

“No, but he has to see. They all have to see!” The Master said, snapping his fingers, and looking at the new clones pouring into the room, those for whom the stun had worn off and others he had commanded to his side.

Mina gave Donna a look, and then looked pointedly at her own wrist. Her empty wrist.

Donna glanced down at the Vortex Manipulator now on her wrist and her stomach rolled. Could she do it? Could she leave Mina here? The girl had been her friend while she coudn’t remember anything, and was still just a child, no matter how old she said she was. But then came the Time Lord knowledge, that the best chance they had for everyone was leaving, and she grabbed the Doctor’s free hand, and put the other on her Granddad’s shoulder, pressing the button.

* * *

 

she didn’t like the vortex manipulator anymore the second time, her stomach rolled as they flung through the time vortex without the TARDIS to protect them, and she swore never to use the mallet again as her feet hit solid ground. She took a deep breath, trying not to be sick as her vision cleared, and she realised they were on some sort of ship.

She glanced up, and the sudden tightness of the Doctor’s hand in hers made sense. “Jenny.” She said softly.

“Hello Mum, Hello Dad.” The blonde replied, looking nervous.

 

 


	14. Chapter XIV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina remains in the Master's clutches as he searches for the signal, while The Doctor and Donna have a reunion and a heart-to-heart or two.

The Master whirled around as most of his captives disappeared, and then turned back to the girl in his grip, squeezing tighter. “ _Where are they?_ ” He roared angrily.

Mina somehow managed to give him a sardonic look with very little oxygen, and he loosened his hold, just enough so that she could speak. “They’ll be back.” She reassured him, voice as soft as she could make it, while being held by her throat. “What happens must always happen, though the details might change.”

The Master’s expression changed, and then he smirked. “You’re talking about a fixed point. This is a fixed point.”

Mina just raised an eyebrow at him. “Can’t you feel it?” She challenged, as he phased again. “The gate wasn’t enough.” She whispered softly, bringing a hand up to touch his cheek. “You’re still dying.”

He recoiled at her touch, and dropped her unceremoniously, scoffing. “I don’t need a human telling me about fixed points or what she thinks she knows.” He shook his head. “This body was made from death, it can only do what it knows.”

* * *

 “Oh, Jenny!” Donna exclaimed, wrapping her arms around the girl. “It’s so good to see you again.”

“You too, Mum.” Jenny replied, relaxing and hugging the redhead tighter. “You’re all right? Mina’s been going crazy trying to time everything perfectly.”

“Oh, yes, I’m all fine again, except for The Master deciding to turn the entire population into him, and Mina still being down there with a phasing psychopath.” Donna reassured her, hugging tighter. “I’m back, for good this time.”

“Don’t worry about her.” Jenny advised, releasing Donna to hug her father. “Mina’s an expert at dealing with psychopaths. I’m glad your back, Mum.”

“I’m sorry.” The Doctor whispered into his daughter’s hair. “I’m so sorry. We shouldn’t have left.”

“It’s all right.” Jenny reassured him. “I knew I’d find you again.” She gave him an impish grin. “Had to get a few adventures in under my belt first, apparently.”

The Doctor hugged her tighter for a moment, before clearing his throat. “Right then, time to save the day! Where’s your flight deck?”

Jenny led them through the odd ship, which was like a TARDIS mixed with some kind of other technology, or a more advanced TARDIS than even the Type 98. “What is this?” The Doctor asked, looking around.

“Our ship.” Jenny said, as if that explained everything. The main control room had a time rotor, much like the TARDIS, but it was surrounded by six panels, each with a glowing purple ball. “So, where we headed, Dad?”

* * *

 “Night has fallen. Are we ready?” The Master asked.

“Every single one of us is prepared.” The Master who had been Joshua Naismith responded.

Mina stood nearby, drumming on her thigh in time. She was nervous and she knew it. She also knew it had to happen, but despite that, she tried anyway. “Everyone has heard it now. They know the truth of it.”

The Master turned and glared at the girl. “How can they, when I don’t?” He growled at her until she stepped back, and then turned to face the masses of himself. “Attend carefully! Listen. All of us, across the world, just listen. Concentrate. Find the signal. There! The sound is tangible. Someone could only have designed this. But who?”

“The sound. It's coming from above.” The Master-Who-Had-Been-Naismith called.

“It’s coming from the _sky!_ ” The Master shouted, taking off at a run, and with the ease of someone long used to such things, Mina ran after him, followed by two of the Master-Guards. On the terrace he pointed to the white-hot arc across the sky. “There! Find it. Get out there and find it!”

“There!” The Doctor shouted, pointing at the screens that showed only the stars outside. “Follow that light!”

Jenny grinned, and nodded. “Aye, aye, Dad!” Her hand hovered over one of the panels a moment, as the energy inside it spidered out like lightning and grabbed her hand, before she placed it flush on the ball, which turned from purple into a lovely olive green, and then, the rotor squealed and the ship disappeared.

The Doctor had expected it to _fly_ after the light, not to dematerialise, and he let out a noise as he pasted himself up against a wall. “What is this thing?!” He demanded.

“Hard to drive by myself!” Jenny answered, with a grin, her face falling at Wilf’s green face. “Dad, why don’t you look after Wilf, straight down the hall, second door on the right is the medbay.” She smiled over at Donna, who was uncharacteristically quiet. “Can you find Adam for me, Mum? I might need some help here.”

* * *

 The adrenaline had worn off slightly, and Donna was struggling to put together how she was feeling about everything, and what The Doctor had done to her against her wishes, as well as dealing with the entire human race being rewritten. She had a lot of frustration to get out of her system, so it seemed perfectly logical for her to go down the hallway Jenny had indicated. “ _Oi!_ ” She shouted, her voice echoing along the strange grey walls. “Adam! Where are you hiding?”

One of the doors halfway down the corridor opened, and she headed towards it, unsurprised to see an older version of the sweet young boy from Midnight sitting on a bed, with his head in his hands. “I’m an idiot, Donna.” He said, sounding as miserable as Mina had when they had fought.

Donna had been angry at him, but this guilt was much more easier to deal with than her husband’s fear and guilt that she would no longer want him, or was unable to forgive his scrawny arse. That she wasn't ready to deal with yet. “What happened, Adam?”

Adam swallowed hard. “I couldn’t really spend much time out of ship, due to timey-wimey issues.” He admitted. “And...Mina and I...we’ve never really been separated for more than two days since we were kids.” He looked towards the windows in the ship. “We...well...I at least, can’t...shouldn’t...I have no right to speak for her...I don’t take being separated well for any length of time.”

Donna snorted. “She’s been bloody miserable too, but trying to hold it together for the mission.”

Adam looked cheered for a moment, before looking even worse. “I was just going to have a night out, get a little drunk and try to forget about all of it.” He explained. “I don’t know how much I had by the time the girl showed up, but she had this illusion skin on, that would make anyone see who they wanted most, and doused in pheremones and I…”

“Fell for it.” Donna agreed.

“And I felt so _stupid_ after!” Adam admitted, a little angrily. “But part of me wondered...it had always been Mina and I, that maybe we were us because we were just...the only person the other could rely on.”

“And you thought it was your subconscious telling you something.” Donna finished. “I heard the end of that fight.” She put her hands on her hips. “So, the question is, did you find yourself enough? Do you want to sow some wild oats, or do you want her back?”

Adam looked at the floor. “I’m probably too late. She’s worth _pearls_ and she’s probably already got her eye on someone else.”

“Not unless she’s found someone since breakfast.” Donna scoffed. “Who's she going to put her eye on, The Master?” She shook her head. “No, she’s still in love with you.” She wagged a hand at him. “But if you hurt her again, I won’t be so understanding next time.”

“Yeah.” Adam said, shaking his head. “Imagine that.” He swallowed hard, blinking away tears he refused to let fall. “Thanks Donna.

* * *

”"I've always dreamt of a view like that," Wilf said, gazing out the window of the medbay in the strange ship at the planet below. "I'm an astronaut. It's dawn over England, look. Brand new day.” He sighed and looked back at the Doctor. “Everyone’s changed, everyone’s him. My wife's buried down there. I might never visit her again now. Do you think he changed them, in their graves?”

The Doctor didn’t want to answer as he checked Wilf over, determining that he was just a bit nauseous from the travel, though there was a buildup in his system of some sort of chemical compound, it didn’t seem to be anything harmful. The question stopped him in his tracks, though.

"I'm sorry."

Wilf just shook his head. "No, not your fault."

“Isn’t it?” The Doctor asked, not so sure.

“If nothing else, my Donna has her stars back.” Wilf said, with a self-satisfied smile. “I can die a happy man, now.”

“Don’t you dare.” The Doctor said again, shaking his head. “Don’t you dare, Wilf. No one else is dying today.”

“What about your prophecy?” Wilf asked. “You were so sure before.”

“Before I was alone.” The Doctor answered, becoming more sure of himself as he spoke. “Now I’ve a family again.” He looked down at the older man. “And that includes you.”

“My Sylvia’s your mother-in-law.” Wilf chuckled.

The Doctor’s eyes went wide, and he drew his hand over his open mouth. “Yeah, best not mention that to her yet.”

Wilf laughed.


End file.
